Is Africa the Dark Continent when it comes to the advertising industry? On the contrary, says Alan Edgar, Regional Creative Director, Ogilvy Africa and one of regional judges for African and Middle Eastern categories at this year's Loeries. It's alive and vibrant, but in dire need of world-class tertiary training institutions to tap into that potential.

Global Knowledge, the global provider of IT and business skills training, have announced it will be holding the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device): A Blessing or a Curse? roadshow across the Middle East and Africa region from 17-27 February 2013. The free to attend roadshow will be conducted by Global Knowledge's BYOD experts and will also mark the first time Global Knowledge will be conducting the roadshow.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is pleased to invite newspaper and online media managers and editors from select countries in South East Asia and the Middle East and North Africa to apply for a new professional development programme.

Ascend Institute, a United Kingdom based training institute has announced that it will be holding a leadership development event from 28-31 May 2012 at the Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel in Cairo. The workshops in the leadership development event will be conducted by acclaimed leadership experts, Mark Brown and Sam Hindawi.

The finalists in the 17th CNN MultiChoice African Journalist competition were announced on 18 May 2012, by Ferial Haffajee, chair of the independent judging panel. This year the competition received entries from 42 countries across the continent, including French and Portuguese speaking Africa.

Highway Africa's Future Journalists Programme (FJP) took 28 multi-national future journalists to Tunisia to attend the 2012 edition of the Unesco World Press Freedom Day Conference (WPFD), which takes place from 3-5 May.

Showcasing Egypt's growing reputation for ICT excellence, the country will host the Cairo ICT 2012 under the theme 'The Spring of Technologies - From Dreams to Needs' from tomorrow, 26 April 2012, and will culminate with the World Summit Awards (WSA).

DUBAI, UAE: The 6th Dubai Lynx Awards, one of the premier awards celebrating creative excellence in MENA's advertising and communications industry, has received a total of 2037 entries from 17 countries.

DUBAI, UAE: The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) presented its 7th annual Middle East conference with a look at media transformation in the region and issued a call for proposals for innovative projects to support the independent press.

Africa Business News (ABN) Events and CNBC Africa have announced the launch of the inaugural Africa Business Leaders Awards (ABLA), to be hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 21 October 2011. CNBC Africa will be the official broadcast partner of ABLA, which aims to recognise the most prominent business leaders in Africa.